Negative inflation in the Euro area

Eurostat confirmed its initial estimates for annual inflation in the euro area, the indicator is weakened by 0.1% in August to -0.1% in September. A year earlier, the increase in consumer prices amounted to 0.3 %.

The largest upward pressure on the index have restaurants and cafés (+0.12 percentage points), vegetables (+0.11 pp) and tobacco (+0.08 pp). The biggest downward impacts had  the prices of fuels for transport (-0.71 pp), heating oil (-0.25 pp) and milk, cheese and eggs (-0.06 pp).

A separate report published yesterday reveals that exports of the countries of the European union with the rest of the world increased by 6% yoy in August to 148.3 billion euros. At the same time, imports increased by 3% to a seasonally uncorrected 137.1 billion. As a result, the surplus in trade in goods reached 11.2 billion euros from 7.4 billion for August 2014.

For the first eight months of the year, exports are up by 6% to 1346.0 bln, while import - by 3% to 1189.0 billion. Thus the surplus is amounted to 156.9 billion against 104.5 billion for the period  January - August 2014.